Today, Prince turns 54 and his air-lick of a single "Gett Off," turns 21. It was on his 33rd birthday that he delivered this song to clubs, launching his Diamonds & Pearls album, which either marked the end of the second act of his career (megastardom) or the beginning of the third (tapering off). I can't really decide which. I do know that this is the song that converted me into a disciple, and I still adore "Gett Off" as much as I did in sixth grade. I admire its impossible sleaze (23 positions is so many to fit into a one-night stand) and ability to be utterly sexual and uptempo. Prince has portrayed a lot of different kinds of sex atop a lot of different kinds of music, but his best sex is rigorous. "Gett Off" is the best of the best.

The performance above comes from the 1991 MTV Video Music Awards. That's the same show in which Bret Michaels and C.C. DeVille got into a fistfight backstage, Mariah Carey shrieked her head off effortlessly during "Emotions," Pee-Wee Herman made his first public appearance after publicly Client Listing himself and Paula Abdul previewed the train-wrecky loop her career would soon take with a disastrous spin on "Vibeology." And yet, Prince's exposed ass cheeks stole the show. That is sexuality, where vigor meets rigor.